Mamasapano: a lesson for future presidents

ONE LESSON that prominently stands out from the Mamasapano incident to be learned by aspiring presidents, as a job retention strategy, is this: ensure the election of a bad vice president, the more odious the better.

Mamasapano incident has shown that the incompetent incumbent President who ought to lose his job managed to survive an attempt to unseat him—an attempt that, without popular support, looked like a faint stir, doomed to fail from the very start. Not because President Aquino was faultless as in fact the greater weight of the blame for the deaths of the 44 elite policemen lay on his lap. Neither was it because the deaths were inevitable, which could have happened even with the exercise of the highest degree of competence by the President (an assumption against reality).

The reason Mr. Aquino is still our president is that he had an ace up his sleeve—the succession prospect as mandated by the Constitution was more harrowing than the deaths of the Fallen 44. The nation was faced with a hard choice between the devil and the deep blue sea. It chose the sea in this case because of the uncertainty of the sharks being there as against the certainty of the devil taking control.

The incompetence was not that he sought the advice of suspended Philippine National Police chief Alan Purisima, as Mr. Aquino should have sought the advice of persons with some knowledge of the highly secret and delicate operation. Purisima, despite his suspended status, obviously possessed the desired information as head of the PNP or, at least, was favored with the

assumption that he had it. The glaring presidential incompetence was in stepping over the heads of the PNP officer in charge, interior secretary and defense secretary; in so doing, he assumed responsibility as the immediate superior of the Mamasapano operations commander, with the duty to review the minute details of the delicate operation (e.g., how to extricate the elite policemen from extreme danger with the help of the military without prematurely divulging the details of the secret operation to soldiers sympathetic to the rebels; how to minimize the impact of perceived violations to the peace process agreement in a legitimate police operation). Obviously, there were more.

Mr. Aquino’s obvious ignorance of the consequences of failure and/or his assessment that such a failure couldn’t be possible was as clear as the blue sky on a bright summer day.

He was in nearby Zamboanga City on the day of deliverance, obviously to receive the dead bodies of three terrorists, ready to proclaim to the nation the crowning glory of his fantastic accomplishment with the indispensable advice of his bosom friend, Purisima.

That could have catapulted the latter back to the helm of the PNP. Unfortunately for Mr. Aquino, his fantasies did not happen. Instead of three dead terrorists, he had to deal with 44 dead policemen who had accomplished only one-third of their mission.

Such is the high price of presidential incompetence. He should thank Vice President Jejomar Binay he still has his presidential job.

—NICOLAS G. MADERAZO, attynigama@gmail.com